Different Types of Publication

I'm completely new here, so forgive me if this has been discussed before, but I was wondering what people here think about the different options available to an author trying to get her or his book published these days.

I've heard a variety of arguments from either side in favour of both self-publishing and traditional publishing. Most of them seem to revolve around prestige, accomplishment and a broad distribution vs. self-control over the publishing process and personal disagreements with the way the traditional publishing world works.

I myself do not think I will ever self-publish, unless the publication is a personal piece for friends and family not meant for wide distribution. The short stories I've had published have all been sold to ezines and magazines that work by a process of picking and choosing, not by heaving up the sluch pile and hoping to make a quick buck off hapless authors. If I ever finish a full-length novel, I will hawk it around NZ's various publishing houses - and if it fails to garner any interest, I will keep writing, and improve my storytelling ability. I don't think that publishing something by myself, or paying someone to do it for me, would count for me as a success.

True. Because publishers want to make money themselves, a selective process allows you to "screen" for any problems with your novel.

The example you gave in the third paragraph of your post would be a third type of publishing: Vanity publishing. This is where you send in your novel, collection of poetry, whatever, and order a certain number of copies to distrubute. This will not make you any money, and will actually cost money.

Now, when you self-publish, nobody will be rerjected, because the only company you're working with is the printing company. Other than that, you have to do all the marketing and everything. I know nothing about marketing or any of the other stuff an agent and traditional publisher would do, so I choose them to do it for me.